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Fire forming ?

47studebaker47studebaker Member Posts: 2,251 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited January 2019 in Ask the Experts
I ended up trading for a 7x30 Waters rifle length in a Contender. I have run some cases thru a die but now have to fire form to finish. I have some Red Dot along with cream of wheat, Lee dippers and wax that I used to make some 7mmTCU cases about 4 years ago. I don't want to waste any bullets but can't recall how much Red Dot to use. I don't think it was very much but I don't know how much.


Can someone give me some guidance ?
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    rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Start at 6 grains. Fill case with compressed COW, held in place with a wad of unused TP, (very important). When firing, hold barrel straight up. If the case doesn't form correctly, use more RD.
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    nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    C.E. Harris always recommended 13 grains of Red Dot for his fireforming loads. Use a small square of TP over the powder and fill the case with GRITS instead of COW. COW is oily and clumps while grits is not, allowing for easier clean up.

    You can skip the grits and the wax/soap bullets by simply adding the powder to the case, cover with TP and fire in the vertical position.

    Best.
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    47studebaker47studebaker Member Posts: 2,251 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Thanks for the info guys, I used 7 gr and it looks good. I seem to be leaning toward weird calibers, 7mm TCU, 270 Ren and now 7x30 Waters.
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    spiritsspirits Member Posts: 363 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    To give better concentricity support to the case in the chamber, size the cases to give the case neck a very slight bump at where the neck joins the case shoulder. This may be irrelevant for the rimmed 7X30 case but in bolt action rifles where the firing pins are heavy and firing rimless cartridges you need to do this otherwise you could end up with shorter cases (i.e., case headspace gets shortened). Once after a few firings of neck-sized only cases, one case in my MS 1950 257 Roberts started to look like the leaning Tower of Pizza hahahaha. Even though I neck-sized only, the MS firing pin impact shortened the case after each firing and in this particular instance not concentrically.
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    dfletcherdfletcher Member Posts: 8,162 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by 47studebaker
    Thanks for the info guys, I used 7 gr and it looks good. I seem to be leaning toward weird calibers, 7mm TCU, 270 Ren and now 7x30 Waters.


    Might be an age thing. Heading toward 60 and having lots of T/C barrels I'm finding 6mm, 25 caliber and some 7s are a bit easier on my shoulder. My current favorite in the Contender is a 25.35 WCF from MGM. Accurate as heck, pleasant and necking down the 30.30 cartridge makes it easy to reload for.
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